I was a retail/finance major in college, working in retail since I was 16. I spent a decade of my life in retail and half a decade in wholesale. These businesses teach foundational tools for inventory, sales, management, turn, etc. Then the last 15 years, I have spent investing. I learned about customer acquisition, direct-to-consumer businesses, social media, and new-world marketing. Gotham touches all these things, so as always, all the dots connect.

Over two years ago, I decided to go after a dispensary license. I had this germ of an idea about opening a retail store, seeing all my favorite stores close their doors during Covid. And then cannabis came along. How about putting them both together?

Getting a license is not a walk in the park. You don’t want to hire anyone or spend any money until the acknowledgment from the Office of Cannabis Management that you are given a license. Then there are multiple hoops to jump through to get the license enacted.

I took a not-too-expensive risk and hired Foster Project to work on the brand; we already knew the name and had an early logo, which they tweaked. That took a few months while we waited for the OCM to accept license applications, so we believed we had a good shot when we could apply.